Assignments

Grade descriptions

Course grades will be determined by the assignment percentages below and the attendance policy. The course will not use +/- grades for final evaluations. These descriptions will give you an indication of the the expectations that will guide my evaluation of your individual projects:

A (90–100)Outstanding: represents superlative participation in all course activities; all assigned work completed, with very high quality in all course work.

B (80–89)Excellent: represents above-average participation in all course activities; all assigned work completed, with consistently high quality in course work.

C (70–79)Average: represents good participation in all course activities; all assigned work completed, with generally good quality overall in course work.

Participation (10%)

This course is designed to be a participatory learning experience, combining discussions, workshops, and in-class activities and assignments. In general, if at the end of the semester you can demonstrate that you were able to substantially enhance or contribute to the course learning community and you fully participated in course activities, you will be able to earn full credit for participation. While preparation times may vary depending on our weekly schedule, you should plan to spend 6 hours a week—or, 2 hours for every hour of class time—preparing for class meetings.

What does class participation look like?

Participation can take different forms for different students. For example: you could post relevant links and comments on the course Twitter feed during or after class, you could take notes on class discussions, or you could assist your classmates during workshops. Each of these activities allows you to engage with the course, and, consequently, improves the course experience. Although every student can participate in the course in a different way, some participation behaviors hold true for everyone.

First, you cannot participate if you do not attend class or if you regularly show up late or leave early. For these reasons, course attendance is a necessary prerequisite for participation.

However, attending class does not equal participation, for it is possible to be in every class meeting without engaging with or contributing to the learning that occurs in class. Second, it will be impossible for you to participate in course learning if you come to class unprepared. You can prepare in the following ways:

Before each class meeting you should complete all assigned readings and homework.

You should bring all materials to each session, including course texts, additional readings, your notes, homework, assignment files and research sources, discussion notes from previous meetings, and any other relevant materials.

Finally, while in class, you should be engaged in all activities. You can do so taking notes on our discussions and/or by participating in those discussions either orally or via the Twitter backchannel.

You will have multiple opportunities to earn participation credit, and it will be your responsibility to save relevant materials (like your notes) as evidence of this participation.

Quizzes (10%)

You will receive a daily quiz grade for each class meeting. On any day on which readings are assigned you should be prepared to demonstrate your comprehension of those readings, not simply by discussing them in class, but also by being quizzed on the content of the readings and/or successfully completing any assigned proof-of-reading activities. On workshop days, this quiz grade will be based on your participation in and/or completion of workshop activities.

Missed quizzes cannot be made up. Quizzes will typically be given at the beginning of class; if you are late or absent and miss a quiz or proof-of-reading activity your quiz grade will be zero.

Remixed text (20%)

For this project, you will choose one or more copyright-free or public-domain texts and create an EPUB in which you remix that text or texts using both textual and multimedia elements.

The text should be the approximate length of a short story, 1,000–9,000 words. In addition to textual remixing it must include multimedia and/or interactive elements not present in the original.

Your remix can take the form of annotating a text to provide a new understanding of its contexts; reformatting or rearranging a text to have it say something new; creating a mashup of multiple texts; or enhancing a text by adding new elements, like audio, video, or images, that illustrate, build on, or comment on the original text.

In addition to the remixed text, your EPUB file will contain an introduction of no less than 300 words that explains the changes you made to the original text, why you made them, and how you intend the text to be received by its audience.

Where to find texts

You can find copyright-free and public-domain texts in various places online. The list below can help you start your search:

Goals and grading

The technical goal of this project is for you to continue mastering the EPUB format and the skills associated with adding multimedia elements to your books. The writing goal is for you to experiment with the rhetorical and compositional possibilities of remix using the tools of the EPUB format. Together, these two goals will help prepare you for creating your final book project.

In line with these goals, the project will be graded according to the following factors:

Design: The book adheres to the best practices for document and multimedia design.

Accessibility and standards: The book adheres to the guidelines for accessibility and the EPUB format. The ebook should be free of major errors in code—it should pass validator checks—and load correctly in major EPUB readers.

Remix and effectiveness: The remix of the text either adds significant value to the text or alters it significantly so that it achieves a new purpose beyond the scope of the original. The goals of this remix are effectively described in the introduction and the content of the text effectively accomplishes those goals. The text and other multimedia elements are free of major and minor errors in structure, syntax, and grammar and display the quality of writing appropriate for a professional publication.

Multimodality and interaction: Effectively incorporates multimedia and interactive elements into the book to complement, comment on, and/or extend the written text.

Copyright and citation: All of the elements of the book are either the sole creation of the author, explicitly licensed for reuse, no longer covered by copyright, or within the accepted norms of fair use. All sources used in the book that are not the sole creation of the author will be fully cited using a citation format appropriate for the medium. Upon request, the author will be able to demonstrate that the book meets the above requirements by supplying me with the source materials she or he used in creating the book.

Proposal (15%)

This formal proposal will solidify the details of your final ebook project. Before beginning this assignment, you should read through the requirements for that project and then consult them regularly as your revise your proposal.

Writing the proposal

The proposal will serve as roadmap for your ebook, for both you and for me, while also giving you practice writing in the genre of book proposals. As a formal proposal, this document should be clearly written, thoughtfully revised, and thoroughly proofed so as to present the best possible ethos for the writers. This document will be the place where you connect the book’s content and form and explain how the two will work together to appeal to your audience. Your ultimate goal is to convince me that your book will be interesting, meet the needs of a particular audience, take advantage of the multimedia and interactive elements of the EPUB format, and can be successfully completed in the time available to you.

In the proposal, you should answer the following questions:

What is the book about? What is the title? What will the content consist of? Where will that content come from? Will you create it? Will you adapt it from other sources? Or will it be some mixture of the two? As part of this section, you should give a description of the form of the book. Will it be divided into chapters or sections? What will be their titles and what content will they contain? You should include a sample Table of Contents as well as some indication as to how long the book will be.

Who is the book for? Who will be the audience for your book? What is it about your book that will appeal to that audience? What does your book provide that other books do not? For this last point, it can be effective to briefly describe similar books whose audience you wish to appeal to, then explain what your book will offer that audience that they cannot get from these existing titles.

Why you? Provide a brief explanation, backed by your training or biography, as to why you are the best person to author the book you are proposing.

Why is this book an ebook? What multimedia and interactive elements will you include in the book? How do you anticipate these elements enhancing the goals of the book you outlined in 1.? How will they serve the needs of your book’s audience?

How will you complete the project? What research needs to be completed, what technology skills need to be mastered, or what content needs to be created in order to achieve the goals you have outlined in the proposal? What is your timeline for completing these tasks? If you are working in a group, how will these tasks be divided among group members?

Grading

The proposal should be 1,000–1,500 words in length, and you will submit it as a document in your course folder. Format the proposal using the general guidelines of the MLA format (no title page is necessary). This assignment will be graded according to your ethos; that is, the ways in which you use this written document to project your authority, expertise, and professionalism. Such an ethos can be achieved here in three primary ways:

addressing the requirements of the assignment questions above thoroughly and with appropriate detail;

proposing a book that, in content and quality, will effectively demonstrate your skills as a technical communicator; and

demonstrating your ability to achieve the content and quality goals of your proposed book by meeting the assignment requirements and mastering effective, error-free writing.

Ebook (30%)

Your book should largely follow the plan outlined in the proposal. You are not locked into your proposal, but any major deviations from this proposal should be addressed with me as early as possible and prior to submitting the project.

Ebook requirements

Working alone or in small groups (2-3 persons), you will create an EPUB project that showcases both the author or authors’ writing and rhetorical skills as well as the multimedia elements afforded by the EPUB format. The book should be equivalent to the length of a long essay or short story, roughly 4,000–7,500 words (multimedia elements will count toward this total), and it must contain significant multimedia and/or interactive elements. You are free to remix content you did not create as part of the book, but it is to be distinguished from the remixed text by being more complex in either scope or ambition; otherwise, it should consist primarily of original content created by the author(s). In all cases, content not created by the author(s) should include full source citations within the text.

Additionally, the book will include an original introduction of no less than 300 words that explains the rhetorical choices the author or authors have made in creating the book and how the book is intended to be experienced by its audience. For example, this introduction can explain the rationale behind the book, including content, remix, and design choices; the purpose of the book; and/or whatever information the audience might need to read the book properly.

Grading

The project will be graded according to the following factors:

Design: The book adheres to the best practices for document and multimedia design.

Accessibility and standards: The book adheres to the guidelines for accessibility and the EPUB format. The ebook should be free of major errors in code—it should pass validator checks—and load correctly in major EPUB readers.

Readability and effectiveness: The content of the book effectively accomplishes the goals laid out in the proposal, including the quality of its content and its appropriateness for the target audience. The text and other multimedia elements are free of major and minor errors in structure, syntax, and grammar and display the quality of writing appropriate for a professional publication.

Multimodality and interaction: Effectively incorporates multimedia and interactive elements into the book to complement, comment on, and/or extend the written text.

Copyright and citation: All of the elements of the book are either the sole creation of the author or authors, explicitly licensed for reuse, or no longer covered by copyright. All sources used in the book that are not the sole creation of the author or authors will be fully cited using the MLA citation format and, upon request, the author or authors will be able to demonstrate that the book meets the above requirements.

Public reading (15%)

In the final week of the semester, authors will showcase their books for the university community in a public reading of 5-7 minutes. (Time and location TBA.) authors may choose to read sections of the book or give a talk about its contents, whichever is appropriate. The reading should make use of the available presentation equipment to effectively showcase the unique elements of the book for the audience.

This project will be graded on its content and the quality of the presentation. That is, do authors effectively and persuasively summarize or excerpt the content of their books and present that content in a way that takes advantage of the oral and visual presentation mediums available to them?